“It’s always an adventure” applies to many things, especially when you are doing things outdoors. There are just so many things that are beyond your control. From gardening to climbing mountains, from farming to beekeeping, there is an element of surprise and the unknown that is just part of those activities.

Bees have been our big adventure lately. We’ve had our hives since April, and they made it (well-strapped down) through Milton. We started with two hives, and, wow, they couldn’t be more different. The first hive, ruled over by Queen Bee-atrice, has been on fire. Those worker bees know how to work! They wax frames like crazy and fill them with honey, and Bee-atrice has been a hard-working and methodical queen, laying eggs in a perfect pattern and building the hive up rapidly. Phoe-bee, on the other hand, the queen of our second hive, has taken a more lackadaisical approach to hive-building. Slow to lay eggs, the bee count in that hive has grown, but not nearly at the pace of the first hive. This happens a lot in the bee world. Every queen is different, and they don’t all produce eggs at the same rate or produce the same hardworking offspring.

So, a little frustrated with Phoe-bee, we took a chance a few weeks ago and split the hives up. This is our first foray into hive-splitting, and we were a little nervous. It would be one thing if we had 20 or 30 hives producing honey with queens in each one. But we only have two. Still, we gambled and created a third hive, splitting Phoe-bee’s hive into two and adding some of the frames from our hardworking hive to see if we could create a new blended and more prodigious third hive.

The other night, we realized our first success. Kim had noticed queen larvae in the new hive when she inspected the last time, so we were hopeful that a new queen would hatch soon. As we inspected the hive this time, the frame where Kim was sure the queen larvae had been didn’t have them anymore. And then as we glanced down, we spotted a queen! The hive created our third queen. We were so excited to welcome Shel-bee to our colonies.

But it isn’t all fun and games. Once we discovered this new queen, we inspected the other hives and started to find strange signs. One of the frames in Hive Two almost looked like the bees were trying to send us some kind of message (maybe they are tired of their queen Phoe-bee as well…).

And in Hive One, there were an overwhelming number of drone bees (the male bees) and what are called supersedure cells (a sign that the hive is creating a new queen, either to replace the existing one or to swarm and relocate at least part of the colony). So while we found a new queen, there were lots of irregularities in our other hives. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems like it will be at the outset. Beekeeping, gardening, and life is always an adventure. You’ve just got to keep at it.

P.S. On our first post-Milton hive inspection, we spotted all three queens. The hives had calmed down a bit and had less irregularities, and Shel-bee, our new queen, was laying eggs. So now we have three active hives! The hurricane will slow honey production, but we are hoping for some Ker-bees honey soon!

P.P.S. If it feels like there is too much adventure in your life, come join us this Saturday, Nov. 2nd for Yoga with Gratitude. At 9:30 am Kristen from Keystone Yoga will lead you in a relaxing and rejuvenating practice surrounded by beautiful plants with a focus on all the things we have to be thankful for. Tickets can be purchased here.